| | | (Tucker Harris for The Washington Post; Photo by Thomas Simonetti for the Washington Post) | | Welcome. This week, hydrogen from coal and wolf howls. But first, I've spent the last year working on a series about climate risk and real estate. Housing prices have boomed for a century. Here's the first installment on how climate change is changing that math. |  | | In 2017, Angela and Donald Brudos moved to a modest, ranch-style house where the Caloosahatchee River empties into the vast calm of the Gulf of Mexico. Despite Florida's reputation for extreme weather, it held out the promise of an affordable paradise where they could retire. "We felt safe," said Angela, "because neighbors told us it had never flooded." But even as the Brudoses' home remained perfectly dry, climate change was beginning to reshape the housing market here — and in vulnerable places throughout America. By the time they settled in their new home, research suggests, flood risks were already making people less willing to pay for houses in waterfront neighborhoods such as theirs, eroding prices even as values marched upward in lower-risk neighborhoods. |  | | As buyers and sellers wake up to risks on a hotter planet, Cape Coral might be a preview of what millions of homeowners throughout the country could face: a slow and almost imperceptible re-pricing of many people's biggest asset. For the Brudoses, the risk became apparent only when Hurricane Ian crashed ashore in 2022, leaving their living room buried under mud and debris. When I stepped onto their front lawn this July, nearly two years after the storm, they were still living in a trailer in their driveway. Escalating expenses and insurance delays had left them drowning in debt. To qualify for flood zone insurance, they took out a $210,000 loan to elevate their home. "The only choice we had was to go severely in debt and raise the house, and hope by being elevated, you can recoup the money," Donald said. "We're scared to death." Scientists can say only that warmer temperatures caused by climate change are probably intensifying hurricanes such as Ian, not pinpoint its role in damaging the Brudoses' home. And the value of real estate is shaped by a wide range of factors, from interest rates to local economic conditions. But the couple said Florida, which has been hit by two hurricanes in the past month, has changed: It's a riskier place than when they arrived. This year, I visited cities such as Cape Coral on the front lines of climate risk. Working with colleagues at The Washington Post, we analyzed millions of real estate transactions along the Florida coast to see how climate change may be transforming home values. And we found that the gap between riskier properties and safer ones is only growing. Click below to read my column, and see how climate change is changing your home's value. How has climate change affected home prices where you live? Send your stories to climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails. |  | Field Sample The northern lights appeared in the southern latitudes last week. Typically only visible closer to the planet's poles, the strong geomagnetic storm, rated 4 out of 5, or "severe" by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, illuminated spots around the world including New York, D.C., Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Arizona. | | The northern lights illuminate the night sky Thursday above a road in Lietzen, Germany. (Patrick Pleul/dpa/AP) | | The phenomenon occurred during the peak of the 11-year solar cycle, when such outbursts from the sun are most probable. Space scientists told The Post in August that many more instances of the northern lights may still be in the pipeline. "The next three or four years, we should see some fine displays of aurora," said Bob Leamon, a solar physicist at NASA and the University of Maryland at Baltimore County. "It's like a whole generation of people discovering something for the first time." Read more here. | Learning Curve Flood maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) underestimated the risks faced by homeowners in areas hit by Hurricane Helene. A Post analysis of data from First Street, a climate modeling group, found that the agency's maps, which rely on historical flooding, fail to account for flooding from heavy rain, small streams and tributaries, or the risks from climate chance as a wetter, hotter world brings more intense rainfall. | | The true number of properties at risk could be seven times higher than what FEMA flood maps indicate. "It's like you're driving down the highway but you're only looking in the rearview mirror," said Anna Weber, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Read more here. | Snapshot Our coverage continues of the aftermath of recent hurricanes. In the South, photographers recall scenes from Hurricane Helene they'll never forget, such as the image below of a man in North Carolina helping a car to escape floodwaters. The recovery in North Carolina is being hindered as officials were forced to relocate amid a report of an "armed militia." This comes amid threats traced to Trump-fueled misinformation. | | A man tries to rescue a car inundated by floodwaters on a stretch of road in Boone, N.C., on Sept. 27. (Jonathan Drake/ Reuters) |  | The Second Degree Nearly every household in America has a car, I wrote in my last column. Some families are breaking free. But it's hard. Robin of Washington state wrote to share how once their hospital and medical clinic moved to the neighboring town, a short walkable trip turned into an eight-hour ordeal on a bus. Others, like Sarah, said they have always lived this way, and never plan to change. "For forty-six years I have relished the freedom that relying on a bike, bus, train, or my own feet involves," she wrote. "Most times if I'm going to the mountains or the shore and public transport doesn't get all the way, I just call an Uber or a friend, or rent an e-bike. It is a wonderful life." If you want to see how easy it is to walk, bike or use transit from any address, type it into walkscore.com. |  |  | | Jeanie Lerner was walking by the Lafayette Reservoir in California's Contra Costa County when she snapped this image of a new day on a cool October morning. How's fall in your neighborhood? Send me your photos and stories at climatecoach@washpost.com | | Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Climate Coach in your inbox every Tuesday. See you next Tuesday, Michael Coren, Climate Coach | | |
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